The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

1. The author's key points in this article were visibility, simplicity, appropriate clues and feedback. The author thought that these were important aspects as to why people get so frustrated with poorly designed everyday objects. Visibility is one aspect that Norman feels strongly about, he believes that if someone is to use something properly then the correct parts have to be visible. He also believes that some objects are to elaborate and need to be dumbed down so that it can become easier for everyone to use. Feedback is the main cause of confusion when dealing with new objects, because it's very hard to know if you're pressing the right buttons if you're not getting any feedback from the object.
2. I have a very difficult time using the locks on the mail boxes here at Kalamazoo College. I feel like the basic opening system for a standard lock is great, but somebody here at Kalamazoo College felt the need to change that. The design makes it difficult to use, because it's not standard. This item does suffer from one of Norman principles which are simplicity and appropriate clues. This item gives no clues that it's not the same as a normal combination lock, so there is no way to tell that it has some type of new strange combination system.
3. The makers of the ipod think that their product is perfect, which means they feel that it has no problems. They addressed the problems of visibility. The consumers think that the ipod should have a visible power button, but the creators responded by saying it doesn't need one. They also addressed the problem of appropriate clues, the creators felt that the scroll wheel covered all the appropriate clues needed to for somebody to operate the ipod.